God
Until that fateful day, I was whimsical.
Intelligent I still am.
Laughter we always shared.
Subtle, I've always been.
Often I think of you. Perhaps too often, that is.
Now is now, then was then. I am now, sadly, you were then.
-Wilson W. Wilson for Katharine M. Wilson
Written in the year of our Lord, 1994
1977
'Wilson, could you answer the door?' hollers a voice, Katharine Wilson's, from the kitchen of their Detroit, Michigan house.
'Yes' the man shouted back, walking down the stairs as he replied.
The people awaiting the Wilsons were quite odd indeed.
There was two gentlemen standing in long white robes. They both had blonde hair. One of them had blood stains all over the stomach of the robe. The other's hair stretched well past the middle of his back. Oddly, this didn't seem tacky or out of place on him.
'How may I help you?' asked Wilson once he opened the door.
Neither one answered, but both strode into the house, completely ignoring the man. In doing so, they revealed a third being behind them.
It was about three feet tall, walked on four legs, big black eyes, and what appeared to be metal spikes all over its body, including its stomach.
The two men walked briskly into the kitchen of the home, grabbed Katharine Wilson, and carried her out of her own house. Wilson tried to stop them, and shouted threats of calling the police and such, but all to no avail.
Once out on the front porch of the house, the two men stopped, and stood still for several moments. This prompted Wilson to follow them outside onto the porch.
Then the small creature began glowing the brightest, most beautiful color that either Wilson or Katharine had ever seen. It seemed to mix all of the colors of the rainbow together into one mega color.
What happened next would cause anyone who was watching to doubt their eyes. Everyone on that front porch, creature included, was transported to a large building that appeared to be a warehouse.
In a large golden chair in the middle of the room sat an ordinary looking man. He wore a white button up shirt, a tie of the same indescribable color that the creature glowed, and an aquamarine colored suit.
On either side of the man's chair was another golden chair. On the right hand side, sat Katherine Wilson. On the left lay the creature with the spikes, known as The Misfit of God.
'Who are you?' demanded Wilson once he came to his senses.
'All in due time, my friend' replied the man, standing now from his chair.
'How did you bring us here? What do you want with us?' Wilson asked, shouting.
'You know, I really don't like it when people shout at me' the man said, smiling.
'Won't you just answer one of my questions?' Wilson shouted.
'I'm afraid I didn't bring you here for a question and answer session' smiled the man smugly.
Growing tired of this routine, Wilson charged a bit closer to the man. The two men in white robes started to grab him, but at the last second, the man in the suit called them off.
'Fool, now you've become part of my sacrifice. Of course, it's not like I didn't know you would' the man cackled, sounding much more evil, not near as jovial, and almost even demented.
'What do you mean sacrifice?' Wilson started to ask, but was cut off when the man with the long hair grabbed him while the man with the blood on his robe grabbed Katherine.
'You and your wife Katharine shall both be sacrificed. You will be brought back to life with much more knowledge than any mortal human could ever hope to have. Your wife shall be slaughtered, and brought back to life as the spirit of your house. She will be condemned to creep within those walls for the next millennia' explained the man in the suit as if it was something as simple as breathing.
'No! Take me instead!' demanded Wilson.
'I will take who I want to take. It is by my will that your world was created. Now, begin the process!' commanded the man in the suit, laughing maniacally.
First the man with the blood on his robe began levitating, then the man with the long hair.
Next the man with the bloody robe, named Michael, produced a huge scythe out of thin air. The man with the long hair, Ethan, did the same. At exactly the same time, Michael and Ethan's scythes hit their respective sacrificial "lambs" so to speak.
For the next several minutes, the warehouse became so brightly lit that if any mortal were to look at it, they be instantly blinded.
After close to ten minutes, the light cleared. On one of the cement slabs where Katharine and Wilson had been placed, there lay nothing. On the other lay Wilson, though a considerably aged Wilson.
'Now, true to my words, I will give you all of the knowledge that I have compiled. But first, you must prove yourself worthy' said the man, walking around pouring some sort of liquid all over the warehouse floor.
'This is lighter fluid I'm pouring. I'm going to set this place on fire. We're on the top floor of this warehouse, and it has 8 levels. Now, don't worry, there is one route out of here. The other six will lead to sheer destruction and the very gates of death and demise. Only one of us will make it out of here first, and that person shall gain, or retain, all of the knowledge that has ever been and will ever be. The other person will be condemned to a lifetime of suffering. Now, we will have the next twenty five minutes to escape. Starting…now!' explained the man.
At the word "now", most of the warehouse, all but a mere seven percent, was engulfed in bright blue and white flames, indicating that this was an extremely hot fire.
Each man started from the same point, but chose a different path. Kind of like a three dimensional maze game.
Wilson ran down his path until he was confronted with three different options. Run up a flight of stairs to an unknown spot on the warehouse, jump into a pit of fire below, or run through a flame filled doorway. Obviously he chose the stair case, seeing as how he isn't flame retardant.
This stairway leads up to a huge platform that appears to go on forever on either side. Hoping that it was the "right" choice to make, Wilson chose to run towards the right.
Sure enough, he was correct, because after running for about five minutes, he is confronted with a staircase. Not wasting any time, he keeps running, dodging spots of flames on the stairs in the process. After running down over ten flights, Wilson is once again forced to make a decision. He can either try to step over about six inches flames that are covering stairs which lead to an exit sign, or jump off onto a moving platform about 10 feet below himself.
Fearing that the exit sign may be a trick, he decided to try to jump on to the platform. Shimmying over to the edge, Wilson looked down, and using his mathematician brain, figured out the timing of the platform, and thus was able to figure when exactly to jump so he could land safely.
Closing his eyes, Wilson moved forward a little further, then jumped down as gracefully as possible. As soon as he jumped, the platform sped up, and Wilson almost wound up going whizzing by, but was able to grab a hold of the edge of the platform at the last second.
After only a few seconds to catch his breath, he hoisted himself up on to the platform to see what he was faced with next.
'Fifteen minutes have elapsed' announced an automated voice over some sort of speaker system, the likes of which unheard by mortals.
Wilson saw that the side that the platform was moving back and forth to had one of those moving sidewalks, like in The Jetsons.
When the platform made its way back over to the sidewalk, Wilson leapt off of the platform and onto the moving sidewalk. His body wasn't physically prepared for the movement of the sidewalk, so once he was finished with the leap, he crumbled to the ground.
He quickly recovered however, and stepped off of the moving sidewalk, and onto the ground floor of the warehouse.
He also saw the man in the aquamarine suit there, waiting for him.
'Ten minutes remain' announced the same automated voice.
'You'd better hurry' teased the man.
'Why haven't you already gone ahead and exited? You would've won' questioned Wilson.
'I always like to give my opponents a fair chance' explained the man.
Wilson made his way through about another fifty feet of maze, and finally saw an open door, which led into the same dark night that had greeted him not an hour earlier when he'd opened up his front door.
He began to run then. Then the man began to run as well, and easily surpassed Wilson. He then blocked the doors.
'You must hit me and cause me to double over first, before you can be allowed to leave' the man challenged.
'No! I've played your little maze game, and won! So now let me go!' shouted Wilson over the roar of the ever growing fire.
'You must! It's the only way!' demanded the man.
'I refuse! I'd as soon die in here than try to hit you. Freedom isn't worth it' Wilson yelled.
As soon as Wilson spoke those words, all of the flames began migrating to one central location inside the warehouse.
'Congratulations, you've passed my test. Now, to complete the ritual of your incarnation, I will jump inside this pit of fire, for my services will no longer be needed. As soon as I begin burning, all of my knowledge shall become yours. Trust me, you'll need it' smiled the man.
After he finished talking, the man in the suit jumped into the pit of fire, just as he had promised.
Later That Night
'I killed God…I killed God…God…I killed…' Wilson could be heard saying later that evening.
Next to him, in his bed, lay Katharine Wilson, both of them asleep. Or, so it appeared to be.
After several seconds, Wilson woke from his dream. He was delighted to see Katharine next to him.
'She had a heart attack' he thought to himself before he could even think "literally Thank God she's alright".
'How did I know that?' Wilson kept asking himself all the way to the hospital in the ambulance.
'You are God' said a paramedic who looked oddly like Ethan, the archangel who had been in Wilson's dream.
'How did I know that?' Wilson asked himself again.
'You're God now. You know everything that has been, is, and will ever be' replied the paramedic/archangel.
'I'll always be home' whispered Katharine to Wilson a few seconds before she died.
When he got home that night, Wilson couldn't help but notice how lively the big picture of Katharine on the wall was. It was probably just a trick of the light, but he could swear he saw her wink at him.
'Wait a minute, since when was there a picture of Katharine on the wall?' Wilson asked aloud.
'Now…' a throaty voice, much in the same tone of Katharine's, answered him.
I know what everyone is thinking: o0
Wow, that was a little off the wall, Randy Taylor.
But, I intended for it to be off the wall. And yes, I made up just about everything and body in here except for Detroit, Michigan, Katharine and Wilson Wilson, archangels, and God. Oh, and warehouses and fire.
Please R&R. If this is too off the wall, then let me know. I won't write anything like it again. If it isn't, then let me know, and I'll try to come up with similar stories maybe. They would most likely all be only one or two chapters, but still…
Thanks for reading.
-Randy Taylor and The Man in the Aquamarine Suit